Adventures of the Little Red Menace

The life and times of an independent flimmaker

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

True that, man.

What a great day! The hooligans are out and the smart folks are in. Hopefully, between his ability to instill great leadership and the inspiration we all feel that will get us all up off our asses and figuring out ways to pull together, we actually have some hope of getting out of this mess.

So on that note, buy less shit that you don't need, be kind to your fellow man, and respect the planet. Period. This means YOU (and me).

Saturday, January 03, 2009

And the Best Hair in a Male Performance goes to...

If you've seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about. The best hair scene is the one where Rourke is in a beauty salon telling the woman exactly how to do the highlights. Man. Rourke is back, and this girl is happy about it.

I would also like to give a retroactive award for 2007 to Javier Bardiem, whose hair turn in No Country for Old Men will serve as an inspiration for all future performances.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Happy New Year!

Hello there boys and girls. Want to know what I did last night? I made myself a kick ass dinner and holed up at home with a bottle of Prosecco - and wrote in my blog. Which means it's really tonight, but to you, it was last night. Make sense? It was a great time to reflect on the kind of year I had and the kind of year I want to have.

For all that's happened in my life in 2008, nothing beats the election of Sir Barack Obama. Yeah, I'm just going to knight him myself, thank you very much. Anyway, it's nice to have someone in office bringing intelligence back as those motherfuckers in the previous eight years don't know how to act. Hopefully he and the rest of us can get together and bring about some of that change that we've been talking about for a while. Bypassing the bullshit and electing him in the first place was a major step.

One thing the turning over of a new year brings are those obnoxious lists: best movies, albums, celebrity mishaps (I'm talking to you, Plaxico), etc. I've got none of that. I don't go to the movies much. I haven't bought a CD myself in an age. I do know celebrity mishaps, but I'm ashamed to admit that. Instead, here's some other things off the top of my head that were great about 2008.

I finally got out of my credit card debt after many years - a present to myself for my birthday in May, and I did it before the recession really hit. Timing is everything.

I played a lot of gigs with Samba New York and that's been amazing. I think I can even call myself a musician. Now where are my groupies and who brought the blow?

I went on an amazing trip to Italy with some of my family and my good friend Trisha. Italy is one of the countries of my ancestors and it was interesting to feel that connection to the people and the land. Although next time, I need to visit the region of my family (around Naples). I did get to see Venice, the most surreal place yet.

As usual, another year in New York meant another year of amazing art, theater, music and other events that this city has to offer. Angels and Accordians, Equus, Gypsy (with the great Patty Lupone), the Salvador Dali exhibit, David Byrne's Playing the Building, and of course a show or two by The Giraffes and a couple of Paul Auster readings!

I don't believe in resolutions - or rather, I don't believe in telling anyone about them lest you fail in being true to them. But I did decide that I needed to try and revive this blog again, update the site, and bring Little Red Menace back into the cyberworld. There will be some new video, art work, and perhaps some zany hijinks that only a blog can bring.

Hell, I may even get a Facebook page if that will make you all pay attention to me. But that's not a resolution or anything. In any case, Little Red Menace is back!

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Pull up a Chair for The Dinner Party!

Yesterday, my friend Sunny and I went to the first weekend of the Brooklyn Art Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The main and now permanent attraction is Judy Chicago's great 70s installation "The Dinner Party". It depicts her idea of an intimate gathering of some of the greatest women in history who in their own way hugely impacted feminism and all areas of women's equality. Guests include the original Primordial Goddess, Sappho, Saint Bridget, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony and Virginia Woolf. Each plate and placemat was especially created for each guest.

The center currently boasts a huge array of feminist art from 1970 to the present and includes video, live performance, photography and paintings. It was noticed by some that a majority of the art portrayed women in pain and suffering, which was ultimately depressing as it seems that there may be no hope for women in the world to truly be treated as equals in every sense that there is. However, the sad truth is that while we have come a long way, we still have a looooooooooong way to go.

Especially since we as a culture seem to be taking steps backwards, whether it's the threat of overturning Roe v. Wade or the subjugation of women by teaching them how to act like strippers and pornstars in order to be empowered. If things continue at this rate, women will really be in more trouble than they can handle. Obviously, in a lot of other countries they already are.

By the way, I want to stress that I do NOT think that strippers and pornstars are unsavory and I do understand that a lot of women are in that business by choice. I just have trouble reconciling how an industry that ultimately objectifies women for the benefit of men is in any way empowering. If anyone out there can honestly and logically break it down for me, I'm definitely going to listen.

It also doesn't help when other women reject the term or idea of feminism. I've got news for you - if you're enjoying the range of employment opportunities you have as well as the ability to have your own place to live, you're a feminist. At the very least, you definitely owe a great deal of thanks to all of the women who paved the way so that we could, oh I don't know, vote? Or make our own choices about our livelihoods?

I advise everyone, female or male, to come out to the Brooklyn Museum and check out this exhibit. If for any reason, to support the idea of more art by women in major museums.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Now it's GARBAGE!

I must love and miss Walter Matthau deep in my very soul as I dreamt of him last night.

I was at my family's place and my mother had just turned on the TV to watch the Oscars. I begged her to turn it off because I just REALLY didn't want to watch. I had also stated that the only thing that would we worth watching was the Ennio Morricone tribute.

Then I asked my mother who else was getting a lifetime achievment award and she answered "Why Walter Matthau, of course". Then she gestured slightly over to her left and there was Matthau himself sitting at our dining room table. He appeared to be in his late 40s or early 50s. I immediately sat down next to him and gushed shamelessly. He told me he was very honored to receive his award and that he planned to get high before going on stage. This made me incredibly happy.

After a lengthy conversation, I asked him if he'd ever been in a film that was scored by Morricone. But he didn't answer me as by then he had turned into my roommate's cat. As I started to pet him, my four year old nephew Ben silently hummed the theme from "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly".

Then I woke up.

I should never take aspirin before going to bed.

PS - if you have had any Walter Matthau dreams, please share and I will gladly post them!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Mysterious Odors and Subway Superheroes.

Yikes! That smell.

Stories like this make me love this town.

First up, last week, a 50 year old construction worker saved a 20 year old man from getting creamed by an oncoming train. Seems the young man fell off the platform after having some sort of "medical episode". He happened to miss the rails and fell in the space between the them. The other man, making a quick decision after seeing the headlights of an oncoming train, jumped into the space and laid on top of the guy in order to hold them both down far enough so the train would pass right over them. The conductor couldn't stop in time, but both men narrowly escaped injury.

WOW.

Next up, yesterday a strange odor permeated most of Manhattan, parts of Brooklyn and Jersey City. I smelled nothing because I've been in and out of a bad cold since I got back from California. However, others smelled gas. It was stronger in some places and caused a few folks to become ill. But in the end, the odor remained mysterious and according to Bloomberg, not dangerous.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a more fun time than I. I came back from a long and great trip to Northern California with a wicked bad cold that pretty much leveled me yesterday. So this marks my first completely sober New Years Eve since, well, I guess since I was a kid.

Oddly, since I had decided that my focus for 2007 is my health, the universe tested me. There were moments yesterday that I thought I might be well enough to drag myself out. I figured I'd have all day today to recover. But I decided that if I was going to start taking my health more seriously, then I'd better stay home and focus on getting well. Especially because this particular cold going around tends to be long lasting.

But I spent a lot of time watching Simpsons DVDs on my new portable player. Since watching The Simpsons is on a long list of favorite ways to spend my time, it wasn't so bad at all.

I finally got out of bed at noon today. So half of the first day of 2007 is gone. It's raining and I have no idea what I am doing today. I'm listening to Tom Waits new record as I type. It's the Brawlers disc of "Brawlers, Bawlers and Orphans". I'm rather liking it so far. Style wise, it's nothing I haven't heard before. But hell, precious few can turn a phrase like that man.

Technically, the first record I attempted to listen to in 2007 was The Essential Leonard Cohen. But the damn disc is defective! "Sisters of Mercy" just doesn't have the same impact when it's skipping throughout.

My roommate's cat, a grey longhair named Samsom, is hanging out with me thinking of ways to stop me from typing. So I should go pay attention to him now. He pretty much rocks, as far as cats go. Plus, he could probably give a rats ASS about the change in year. Here's to that!